Alison Chase Performance

Alison Chase, who was Founding Artistic Director of Pilobolus Dance Theater, now heads her own company that combines new professional dancers and veteran dancers who have worked with her before. The troupe is devoted to interdisciplinary works, including film, projections and puppetry.

Its current booking repertory includes:

Ben's Admonition is a duet for two men in confinement, performed to music composed Paul Sullivan. It opens with the men suspended by their ankles in a tight cell and is about the tension and dynamic relationship that develops out of their "unchosen proximity." (The suspension uses circus rigging.)

Lucid dreams is about being in the permeable border 'twixt sleep and wake. The score by Ed Bolous was originally performed live at Zankel Hall; it is now being re-adapted for venues without a live orchestra. A layering of live projections now replaces the film that the piece was originally designed for. There are a live singer and recorded music.

Star-Cross'd sprang from Romeo and Juliet. It uses circus silks as set and props. Involves suspension. It's a blend of non-traditional weight bearing partnering and "taking it off the ground."

Tsu Ku Tsu was named for a Japanese Taiko rhythm by its composer, Leonard Eto. It grew out of a collaboration between Eto with a Japanese Taiko drummer. (The word has no literal meaning.)

Uno, Dos, Tray is semi-narrative. It's about two sailors and a waitress. The waitress holds a red tray throughout, thus the title: the tray is a character. Music is by Paul Sullivan.

Alison's newest work Drowned was premiered on June 30, 2012 a the Portland Performing Arts Festival, Merrill Auditorium, inPortland, Maine.

Drowned is tale of the uncorrupted body that is found on the beach by village girls. They carry him back to their village, where he becomes an idol to adore, an altar to decorate, a lover in dreams, a disrupter of all life, and finally the sacrificial animal that brings peace.

It is a story such as might once have been told around a fire, a story about crossing the shady line between life and death, between rage and love, between harmony and the chaos of life. It takes the villagers on a journey from serenity into a rising whirl that breaks their world apart, and then brings them back to a revealed peace.

The form of the piece is both a concrete narrative and a visual meditation that floats from a watery deluge to sandy, barren landscapes, from worshipful adoration to erotic longing. It uses live dance, projected video and photographic imagery, and an original score to the viewer through veils of a rich experience of imagery, sound, and passion. The entire production is large, layered and hypnotic, and floats in the space between performance art and installation, film and physical theatre, dance live and projected.

A unique collaboration between Alison Chase, photographer Sean Kernan andcinematographer Derek Dudek. Dancers, musicians and projections willshare the narrative in an intricate interweaving of live video feed,projected film and photos, dance, and live music. Other collaborators include Vladimir Shpitalnik (sets and audio projections), Langdon Crawford (music technology) and Angeline Avallone (makeup and costumes). The piece also features anoriginal soundscape by Grammy-award winning composer Paul Sullivan.